Home: once I used RedHat 6.2 - now it is Debian with kernel 2.4.20-1-k6.

In 1992 I had bought a Macintosh (IIvx)
which was converted to a Quadra650 in 1996.
It currently has System-7.5.1 on it and probably
will stay at that for the rest of its life - unless
someone finds a way to port MacOSX to 68k processors. ;-)

Elsewhere:
I happen to use Windows and DOS - but only to test Vim on them.
And maybe to play some of those good old games. :-)

Reading:
I enjoy reading on mathematics (especially puzzles),
and biographies from people who have lived in Europe
within this century, focusing on people living in
Germany between 1900-1950.

Although I have quite a few books still on hold,
there are some I'd really like to read - so I started a
book wishlist on Amazon.

Political manifest:
Here's a summary of the guidelines
which I'd apply to politics, too:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it." (Voltaire)
"Help people wherever possible. Be nice.
Do not do unto other as you won't want them
to do unto yourself."
"No censorship - free speech on all media."

And, no, I am not a member of any political group.

Holy Wars:
OK, so once in a while I do resist temptation to
flame
people on Usenet. ;-)
On 990611 I used the following in my post's signature to alt.fan.warlord:
We need killfiles that actually *kill*.
And now I find myself quoted in other folk's signatures. Ouch!

... and this brings us to..

Religion:
How many gods are there?
one, two, or three? a dozen, a hundred, a thousand? 3^3^3?
or even infinitely many - for various kinds of infinity?
or maybe none at all? well - i don't know.
and i do not think that the number really is all that important.
even if there are any then their names are not so that important, either.
you might claim that super-natural beings do not exist at all -
and i do not have proof for that, either.
all that remains is some thinking done on
your life and your relation to other beings.
whatever gets you think about that *can* be good.
so i do not mind you all think about this..
and hopefully you'll find some good solutions from that.
good luck and "god bless". :-)

Maintaining some two hundred web pages and several FAQs.
Occasionally chatting as "Sveng" on IRC.

Community

Much of my time goes into supporting the community
of people using and developing free software.
Since 1999 I have been to quite a few events
where I try to meet the people I am conversing with in email
and bring together people so that they hopefully can work
together on some projects.
I have taken part in organizing some
Key Signing Parties, and organized bus
trips to events (Chemnitz and Karlsruhe).
I usually prepare a talk so as to give info on my
favourite tools (texttools) and related issues.
Mostly I *show* programs and their effects
rather than talking using some slides.
And I definitely enjoy listening to lively
talks where the speaker only needs his talks
as keywords for what he has to say.
I also enjoy taking photos with a digital camera.
So if you don't want your photo online - beware! ;-)

Communication via Chat Systems - ICQ IRC Jabber SILC

Besides Email, IRC was one of the first "Internet services" I used.
I certainly know how addictive this is, but nowadays I just use it
to talk to people I know, exchanging data about setups for programs.
From time to time I am logged in via irc.fu-berlin.de
using the nickname SvenG
usually talking on the channels
#fub, #vim, and #zsh.
You can send me a message with
"/msg sveng hi there"
and I usually respond if I am not "away".

Since late 2002 I have been using centericq.
to also chat via ICQ.
My number is 38801898.

However, there are many things i do not like about centericq.
it has only a very small amount of support for key binding,
options for color and for adjusting the layout.
its use for blind people is almost impossible
as it has no support for placing the cursor.
and you can only find people in your
contact list with a prefix search.
there is much more to be said about centericq -
but in the end it boils down to "no development".
in short, centericq needs a replacement by a
multi-protocoll client with many more options for
color, screen layout, keybinding, and list limit.
and i am sure it could be a LOT smaller, too.
hopefully, the irssi server will replace it
if it ever comes to life.
meanwhile, i might switch to bitlbee. let's see.

You can also reach me via Jabber as guckes(at)jabber.com
like i said - i would like to get rid of centericq
for its lack of support for some of the features
that make jabber better than icq and other systems.
one of these features is that jabber was designed
to be extensible. so everyone who writes a
jabber client does so - expand, expand, expand.
why is there no *basic* jabber client which
excels in supporting the basic features of jabber?
i would think that everyone wants a fast access
to "buddies" (people in the contact list),
good editing commands with reuse of words
in the recent conversation, a display
of the conversation history (aka log),
fast access to URIs within it, as well as
commands for an easy integration of encryption.
if this client would also be available for
linux, mac *and* windows then it could be the
basis for many more clients with better features.

Sven's X-Files

In this world of data you are certainly leaving traces.
Here are some of Sven's:

Well, a lot of emails and posts end with a signature.
Whenever I send a message and there are hints to some program
they are usually appended within such a signature.
The above file has all the signatures with hints on programs I am using.
Usually they contain the URL to a web page with more info.
And often they have the latest version number and release date, too.
(I had put these version info onto another page, but I gave up
on maintaining it because this really is a LOT of work,
and noone really seemed to need such a page but myself.)
Meanwhile I am using this file for almost any info
I might want to use in some context.

in my bedroom you will find: a bed :-)
books; pictures; sleepy cat.
window with a view of the beach & ocean.
the mountains. and the sky. (heh - i wish!)

Professional

occupation: internet ghost

industry: High Tech, Computer Software

company: slrn.org vim.org and some more dotORGs

job description: project manager, software designer

work email hire-me@guckes.net ;-)

work phone: +49-179-3966141

career Skills: many webpages documenting several text based programs such as
elvis knoppix links magicpoint mutt procmail screen slrn vim zsh...
pushing the limits to more features and configurability.

career Interests:
designing the next generation in "laptops for everyone".
a small computer with detachable display and standard connectors running
on a Free OS and a Free Hardware Design with emphasis on text based programs.
endurable, features galore, free stuff - and affordable for everyone!

Passions

Free Software!
And I prefer text based programs.
Forget about that mouse with 3/4/5 buttons -
gimme a keyboard with 103/104/105 keys!

Sports

"no sports" ;-)

I use to play tennis, go sailing and skiing -
but all these things take too much equipment
and are all quite expensive, too.
So now I enjoy biking and swimming,
and table tennis occasionally - and
I keep reading as much as I can.

So many interesting things to read about -
so little time to actually do them.
That is why I now declare "sleeping"
as one of my hobbies...

Favourite Books

Favourite Music

Why - *good* music, of course! :-)

I like a lot of different kinds of music -
so I never figured out what my favourite kind is.
But I like a lot of the music of the 60s,
some from the 70s, and quite a few of the 80s,
however, not much of the 90s.
Some people call me an "oldie fan".

In September 2001 I tuned in to MTV while I was sitting at the computer.
So I compiled a
list of songs which i liked.

Favourite TV Shows

I once enjoyed "Ally McBeal" some time ago..
Occasionally I would see "The Simpsons",
and I would probably enjoy watching
"Sex And The City" (seen one or two series)
and maybe "Friends" (haven't seen it yet).

Anyway, I stopped watching TV in November 2002.
Since then I have used the TV only
as a monitor for the DVDs I rented.
And I eventually gave it away because a law
in Germany says that you have to pay a fee
for TVs even when you don't use, cannot use it, and
even if they are broken and cannot be used. (sheesh!)
Now I am watching DVDs on my computer monitor,
or just go to the movies eventually.

Favourite Movies

I like humourous films (comedies),
especially those fun animations.

I really enjoy
going to the movies,
especially sneak previews.
But I also enjoy watching films on DVD at home.

A statement on Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)

I mostly use programs with a text interface.
Therefore many people think that I am old-fashioned
and that working on the computer takes a lot more time.
They even assume that I hate GUIs or
that I do not know GUIs at all.

But this is all wrong.

Mind you, I do use an X server and a window manager
to start some GUI programs, for example when
I need a web browser to look at webpages with picture,
or to view a text which is embedded in a PDF or PostScript,
or to look at the output of a LaTeX source.
I even enjoy using a graphical sound player.

So - GUIs are nice. Or rather, they can be nice.
Colorful and all that.
They allow issuing commands with a mouseclick and
the symbols on the buttons can show you what they'll do.
Their menus group the commands so you can guess
where you will find some kind of command.

However, GUIs require a lot of resources.
And they won't read the manuals to you.
Alright, some GUIs can display documentation nicely,
but that really does not enhance the documentation.

I am still waiting for the perfect GUI.
So far I have seen some very nice ones -
but none of them gave me the power and speed
of a text interface and the keyboard.

But every so often I look at webpages with
a text browser, convert DOCs, PDFs, and RTFs
to text, and I can listen to music
by starting a command line tool.

GUIs usually do not only slow me down,
I also find them quite aggravating
because they are not flexible enough.

I prefer to have fast access to data.
And programs with a text interface are
a lot faster because they can be
configured via any text editor,
they can be started via a shell alias
(along with many of my favourite parameters),
they can be used on any kind of terminal
and thus be used remotely), and they also
interface nicely with each other in
command sequences, especially in pipes.

I have yet to see programs with GUIs
to generally allow cooperation with
other GUIs through easy interfaces.
This would allow to automize
their use with scripts.
There are a few examples, though:
ImageMagick, Gimp, Scribus, and OpenOffice.
however, I do not find their interface easy to use.

the text output of the commands also allow
to take hardcopies which are text only.
so if there is a problem with any of these
then you do not need to take any graphical
screenshots and have these converted to text
for sending them to the developers via email.

text tools show text and thus have quite a low
overhead when you are using them on a remote host.
you can still make use of them via a slow modem link
while most GUIs simply forbid remote use via a modem.

A Statement on Laptops

I do a lot with computers every day -
but I do not have a laptop. Surprised?

Although a laptop means that you can do lots of stuff
being offline, I do not enjoy computing when being offline.
I cannot send email, I cannot chat, I cannot browse webpages
or search for webpages.. basically, I cannot communicate.

So when I am offline, I prefer to do all the other things..
like reading a book, riding a bike, or eat and sleep.

"But don't you need a laptop when you are away?"
No, not really.
All I need is some kind of terminal
to log in to a server with my account.

The account has my data, including
my programs with my configuration.
There is no need for me to install programs locally
and configure them before I start working.
Also, I need not download my data to operate on them,
and upload them again when I am done.
When I am done I simply cut the connection -
and continue when I log in again.

However, two people gave me their old laptops for use,
so I actually use them when I attend some events.

There are some benefits to a laptop:
You can install some programs and configure them
to go online easily without setting this up
every time you want to go online.
You can get used to its keyboard layout
which assures some typing speed.
And you can go online through a wireless connection which
allows to sit apart from loud people in a quiet corner.
And you can stuff more data onto
its disk than onto a usb stick.

Still, I prefer the online account which allows me
to be independent of the local environment.
All I need is a terminal and some
encrypted connection (through ssh or putty).
The rest is done in a terminal with
all the great texttools out there:
centericq+irssi, mutt+slrn, screen, vim, and zsh.
And the server is usually running 24/7, and
has more RAM and MHz than my local machine.
(2009-08-01: the server is a virtualized machine with 2G RAM
with usually only 10 people logged in, about 200
processes running, so it has a load mostly around 0.10.
and latency from home averages around 30ms.)

And I'd rather not have to carry around my data.
As I frequently say:
'Ich bin kein Datentraeger' -
which roughly translates to both
'I do not carry around data' and
'I am not a hard disk'. ;-)

I have encouraged several people to try
this kind of life style with an account
on a machine which is always online.
They can now enjoy chatting and mailing
without having a need to carry a laptop.
They can now chat and email in a safe
environment without leaving personal
data on a local machine.
Their chat client stays online while
they are logged out, so they can continue to catch
the talk on chat rooms while being away.
(Mind you, chatting need not be a occupation
to kill time, but can be a very effective tool to
communicate with other people on a common project.)
There is no need to start up processes on several hosts.
And attackers only know about one host you use -
and not about the other host you log in from.

The security aware amongst you will remind me
that you need to trust the admins of the host and
tell me that such a centralized view also
leads to a "single point of failure".
this is true, of course - i cannot deny it.
But if you cannot trust anyone and you think
that you need to frequently switch hosts to
distract possible attackers then you probably
need a laptop with encryption for everything.

A Statement on Windows

A Statement on Cellphones

Cellphones are great.
Wish we had had them when I went to school.
Kids are so spoilt these days, aren't they? ;-)

It's nice that you can reach *persons* - not places.
What good is a phone ringing at a place
where the person is not available at?
After all, you usually want to talk to a person,
and not to a phone.
Why doesn't everybody have a cellphone?

Mind you, I expect incoming calls to identify with the caller's phone number.
All calls to my cellphone that do not identify with their number
are usually redirected to the "mailbox" (answering machine).
Hope you understand.

Short messages are welcome. So send them!
But do not forget that I have to have your number
in my phonebook already to see your name.
If you think I don't have your name+number
then please identify in your message by
sending your name, too - just in case.

So many people do not want a cellphone - for various reasons.
Some claim that the ring tone aggravates them.
Some do not want to be "available all the time".
And some other do not want to keep dialing in
to the "mailbox" to listen to messages.
Obviously, these people have never read
the handbook that comes with these things.
Therefore they do not know that they can
change the ringtone and that they can turn
off the mailbox completely. And that it is easy
to simply turn it off when they don't need it.
Entering the PIN seems to be a problem for them
(so they that turned off - silly people!),
a entering a new number with a name seems
to be an impossible thing.
I bet they do not know how to call help -
even if they wanted to!

And yet I'd give a cellphone to people just to
be able to reach them when there is a need to.

It's FREE!

i like helping out projects which produce software - for FREE.
mind you, this is FREE as in "FREE SPEECH".
basically, it means that you'll get the
FREEDOM to do whatever you want with it
(and here's the catch)
as long as these FREEDOMS are preserved for everyone.

Talks WishList

Here is my list of talk which i would really really like
to attend - so that i might understand the topic better:

Projectors -
how do projectors work?
why do they work when you attach a machine with windows -
and as soon as you attach a linux, they suddenly do not work - huh?

Unicode -
how many programs do you have to configure to actually make use
of Unicode (or UTF-8) on your system without having to convert
all those documents a gazillion times?

Orthography

German orthography rules that nouns start with an uppercase letter.
Some time ago I dropped this - at least for informal messages
in chats, emails and usenet postings.
It saves a lot of time and hassle.

There are still some people who send me messages about it, trying
to educate me about it. However, I do know how to write properly.

Rest assured, when it comes to anything worth publishing
I will still try to write everything absolutely correct.

Patience..

the aim of my work is to get something done - and make it free,
so others can continue using it - legally.
that's why i want to get things done asap.
i need to know that when i die that my work
does not get buried with the disk of my PC.
i need to know that my work can still be
used and that it lives on elsewhere..
and i am very impatient about it, too.

i cannot stand it when i work for two days straight
on some text for a talk - and then it is to be reviewed
by someone who forgets about it for two weeks.

patience is a virtue - but virtue is not patience.

Dead Software

throughout the years i have been supporting software in various ways..
but i find that software only lives as long as it is being used.
not only by people who have to use it, but by people who *want* to use it.

using software is a choice that we can and do make almost on a daily basis.
once i get fed up with a slow progress of changes
i simply lose interest in the software - and
then i use a search engine to find
something new, something better.

as soon as i find an alternative i find myself asking
"why not switch?"
and as soon as i have switched to the better software
i wonder why i should keep on supporting the old software
which i now think is worse than the one i am using.

even though i once liked programs like elm and nn,
i have been using mutt and slrn instead for a long time.
but i do not see relavant changes with these programs
any more. i still use mutt - but my use for slrn has died.
i havent read newsgroup or posted to them for 1.5 years.

keeping up webpages with information on old and outdated program
is a nice hobby, however, my time is not devoted to
staffing a webserver of a software history museum,
but bringing together the info about
a program to boost its development.
keeping info about old programs simply
keep them alive longer than they deserve.
and this is why had to remove my info in
elm, nn, and finally about screen, too.
so rather than keeping something alive
which is almost dead i prefer to LET GO.

i was very close to giving up on slrn -
but now the author and former maintainer,
John E. Davis has taken over the maintenance
of his own product again.
but i also know that all work on this program
is a hobby. i won't hold my breath...

if your favourite software becomes outdated
and you want it to live again then you should
probably start it again by re-creating it.
start over by writing it from scratch!

once your supporters become a critical mass
then there is a community again. but
it is a huge effort to make it happen...